Little Hell
by TJ Binx
Summary: Rewrite of 6x13. Kai has a better idea on how to bring Bonnie home, that yields far quicker results.
1. Chapter 1

_What if everything's just the way that it will be?_

 _Could it be that I am meant to cause you all this grief?_

* * *

"Her blood is on Silas's tombstone. It's filled with magic."

"Yep. So in Bonnie-land that means, in an island off Nova Scotia, there's a big, magical battery waiting to be tapped. We just need to remind Bonnie of that."

 _How did Bonnie stand these people?_

That was the question Kai had been pondering for the last ten minutes as he fiddled with the Ascendant pieces on the other side of the pool table, listening to Damon's and Elena's back and forth, their "strategizing"- if one could call it that - on how they were sending Bonnie a message in the prison world.

 _Your prison world_ , a niggling little voice reminded him in the back of his head. _Where_ you _left her behind._ He had taken to calling that voice "Luke." Because that little voice also usually accompanied a pang of - what he was guessing- guilt, a different kind of stab to the gut. A sensation that was becoming all too familiar, as he had been hit with it repeatedly earlier, when reflecting on his siblings during the days after the Merge and before coming to the Boarding House. And again when Damon had mentioned this particular day's special significance - Bonnie's birthday.

Yep, it was all Luke's fault.

"And what reminded you?" Distantly , Kai heard Elena's curious inquiry. She sounded just a touch impressed at Damon's thoughtfulness. Damon gave back some bland answer back that Kai didn't bother listening to, because the sensation he was feeling quickly turned into something he was fully capable of recognizing.

So he burst out, "Oh, thank God." Damon faltered in his reply and turned to him, cautiously. "You two, together, is still _totally_ revolting to me." Damon glared while Elena half-chuckled. "Finally, a familiar feeling, " he continued, cheerily. "Luke didn't take me over completely." Kai set back to work on the Ascendant with renewed enthusiasm.

He was glad to feel it - because revulsion often preceded his homicidal urges. And those urges _had_ arrived as he looked up at the two vampires. And that was really what he was grateful for...their return, it was something he hadn't felt since the Merge. Yet, he couldn't help noticing they weren't as strong as they used to be - now, he couldn't picture himself decapitating Damon and Elena or staking them with one of the pool table's legs to be permanently rid of their irritating presence. Instead, maybe just snapping their necks temporarily so he could work in peace.

It simply meant that the urges weren't overwhelming, like they usually were. That meant he could manage them, stifle them. And that was, perhaps, something about him that Bonnie Bennett could finally react positively to. When she came back, of course, and he apologized.

His new found enthusiasm was instantly dampened, though he was careful not to let it show, by the intrusion of a meat-head.

"What the hell is he doing here?"

Kai only smiled, "Hi."

* * *

He didn't want to snap Jeremy's neck, Kai decided, as he listened to the guy express his disbelief over Kai's seemingly overnight reformation. ( _B_ _onnie wouldn't take too kindly to that,_ Luke reminded). Instead, he just wanted to shove him outside and lock the door behind him. But he did neither, only kept meticulously repairing the Ascendant. Because, apparently, he was the only one that could be bothered to do any of the real work it took to get Bonnie home. A fact that was overlooked by all of his companions, he knew, as they kept gabbing away about whether they could trust him.

He finally shut them up with - what was in his opinion - an apt analogy, comparing his evolution to the devolution of Elena, the blood vacuum, and was soon able to finish his work. The Ascendant was recognizable again, and he zapped them into the prison world. But then the group discovered they couldn't manipulate their surroundings or communicate with Bonnie. A discovery that proved unfortunate when they realized her intentions, in drinking the oldest bottle of Bourbon in the house.

Right after that, they were zapped out.

And as he raised himself up off the floor, Kai was severely disappointed, in himself and in his magic. He wiped away his nose bleed, and he fielded the rest's frantic questions, denied their demands to reconnect. He was characteristically glib in his answers. But underneath that, internally, something deep and ugly festered and gnawed at the thought of Bonnie committing suicide. It just didn't set well with him. Once upon a time, he might've said the reason for that was that he wanted the courtesy of taking her out himself. But that wasn't all that true anymore...no, the true answer was more complicated and murky now.

As he plopped down on one of the overstuffed couches, weakened, he was forced to endure something even more draining than overdoing his magic - one-half of the Scooby gang's hounding. Something about an atlas on which Damon scribbled some notes about the island where the magic source was located. The thought of magic sources, and the new images he had of Bonnie sitting at the dining table and laughing at stupid videos of herself and Damon on the camcorder - which seemed to be on a constant loop in his head currently - sparked a different idea within him.

"Actually, I have a better idea," he said, his tone brightening. He sat a little straighter. "Where's Ms. Cuddles?"

Damon, that's who she would've sent the teddy bear to, he was certain, after she had played him so spectacularly in the cave that day. An act that had invoked a burning rage in him ... and a sort of begrudging admiration and twisted fascination, which had miraculously curbed his violent instincts. His restrained reaction was something that boggled his mind to this day. Any other person, he would've killed instantly. But not her.

He was pulled out of his reverie when Damon asked, warily, "Why?"

"Operation Nova Scotia Scribblings is great and all. You know, it's already gone so well so far," he said, rolling his eyes. "But wouldn't it be much simpler to just send her magic to her?"

Damon eyed him suspiciously as he moved closer to the couch Kai occupied. Elena and Jeremy only stared at him, but their expressions mirrored that of Damon's.

"What?" Kai said defensively, chuckling incredulously. " Just 'cause my plan's not as elaborate and far-fetched as yours, you can't see the potential in it? Not to mention its greater probability of being effective?"

"I'm not giving you the bear, Kai," Damon told him, smirking, with a look that clearly said, "Nice try."

"And why not?" Kai demanded, deceptively light. He stood, then, feeling a bit more stable. He faced Damon, squaring his shoulders.

Damon glared, and his voice became hard. " 'Cause I'm not letting you suck her magic out of it, ya siphoning freak. "

Smothering his anger, Kai let out a long-suffering sigh. "Fine, I guess that means I'll just have to take it to her myself." Smirking, he started around the couch to the table behind it. On its surface was the cake and other supplies for Bonnie's misbegotten birthday party. "I already knew where it was," he explained smugly. "Saw it earlier while you guys were retrieving the Ascendant. I only asked to be polite." He had sensed the magic, actually, in the object. It called to his own immediately when he entered the living room. Now that he had his own, he could feel the aura of her magic. A swirling pinkish-red; it was warm. It suited her.

However, when he was only a step away from the bear, which strangely sat with its back to all the action, Damon vamped across the room and snatched it off the table.

Kai exhaled a breath, reigning in his aggravation. _Okay, I really should've expected that._

"You're obviously not getting it," Damon snapped, as Kai turned to him. " _You_ will never be getting your grubby hands on Ms. Cuddles. Nor are you going back to your little hell dimension without us."

Kai tilted his head, and narrowed his eyes at the vampire. It was amusing, really, his tantrum and the way he was flailing his arms, waving the poor bear around. Also, that he thought he held any power over Kai. Hell, Kai could abandon the effort and walk out right now. They couldn't stop him, and they had really no other means of getting Bonnie back. Who cared if Jo got the letter, she'd probably never forgive him anyway.

Only, he did care and didn't want to stop. And a new course of action was forming in his devious brain. "Fine," he finally conceded, with the smallest hint of his contempt. "We'll stick to the atlas scavenger hunt. However, I think only one of you should go on this time around. " Two less people to get in his way.

"You just need to crank up your witchy-woo," Damon countered.

"That's not how magic works, Damon," Kai said knowingly.

"Make it work, Kai," came the impatient reply.

"Look," Kai started. "You can stand here and argue with me all day -"

Elena interrupted him. "We don't have all day. Bonnie's trying to _kill_ herself." Jeremy nodded his head next to her.

"That was going to be my point," Kai muttered, then mouthed, "wow," to the floor.

But Damon still looked like he was going to argue. When Kai noticed his mouth opening, he quickly cut in, "Would it make a difference if I said that, through this way, whoever the lucky person is and I might have a better chance of being somewhat corporeal?"

He carefully watched their reactions - one of Damon's eyebrow went up while the Gilbert siblings' eyebrows just furrowed.

He tried again, "The objects of the prison world should be tangible to us." And he hoped, maybe, a certain one would stay that way as he left it behind.

Their confused expressions only grew stronger. "We can touch all the things," he explained slowly, exaggerating the syllables, and finally, comprehension dawned.

They all glanced at either other, assessing, as Kai suppressed the urge to bang his head against the nearest wall.

He wasn't sure what their hesitation was, but then he realized it was still a trust issue. It was his idea that only one of them go, so, of course, they thought he was up to something. To be fair, he was up to something, but his reasons were honest - he truly thought it was probably the only way they could interact physically within the alternate dimension.

What he really loved about their collective reluctance to trust him was that it was all borne from their sense of self-preservation - a natural instinct, sure. Even more understandable after what he just tried to pull with Ms. Cuddles. But he couldn't help but wonder if the situation was reversed, and Bonnie had to trust him to save one of them, how long she would take to agree?

Probably not as long as they were, he guessed, drawing on his own observations. He felt himself smile ruefully.

"I'll go with him," Jeremy volunteered, serious, taking a step forward, after several more moments of pointed, concerned staring had elapsed, mostly exchanged between Elena and Damon.

Elena promptly protested her brother's announcement, spinning away from Damon and towards him. "What? No, Jer."

Damn, this was grating.

"I don't care who it is," Kai interjected, falsely nonchalant. "Only that you pick soon. My valuable time is being wasted."

Damon sneered at him, while Kai smirked back innocently.

But Jeremy remained adamant, giving his sister a reassuring glance. "I'm going. You and Damon can hold down the fort."

Kai clapped his hands together. "Great! Now, let's just hope I can hold the spell."

He felt less weak now, invigorated at the thought of implementing his own separate plan. But that didn't mean his magic would cooperate.

"And if you can't?" Damon asked, while Elena's and Jeremy's heads snapped over, perturbed by his words.

Kai grew grave - while he had always been attracted to it, he had never much liked the fact that performing magic had such high stakes. That it held the equal ability to weaken him as much as it did to strengthen him. "If the magic overwhelms me, then I can't pull Jeremy out," he answered. "He'd be stuck over there for eternity." Not to mention, that _he_ , Kai, would probably die. But they wouldn't care about that - _nobody_ would, actually. That revelation was even more sobering, caused a sudden ache in his chest to join the gnawing in his gut.

 _But I might as well go out a with bang_ , he thought. Almost chortled aloud at the irony of _his_ last possible act on Earth as something that could be classified as noble and self-sacrificing, for a person who consistently exhibited those such qualities - to a fault, from his perspective.

Elena had turned again to Jeremy with another objection, but was stopped with a swift, "Don't."

Kai didn't listen to the rest of Jeremy's spiel as he walked back to the center of the room, Damon trailing him. He pulled a settee from the wall, sat on it in a meditating pose, and closed his eyes.

Soon, all was quiet, Elena had been convinced, and Jeremy was settling on the couch Kai had vacated earlier. Kai clutched the Ascendant tighter in his hand and began the spell, " _P_ _hasmatos Tribum, Invocia Cavea, Misero Mundi. Phasmatos Tribum, Invocia Cavea, Misero Mundi._ " As he chanted, and sweat gathered in uncomfortable places, Kai suspected, that if he opened his eyes now, he would be met with a ridiculous image - an almost two hundred year old vampire clutching a teddy bear protectively to his chest. He would've laughed, except he was speaking Latin and needed to concentrate. So he cleared his mind of everything but the words and repeated them until they lost meaning.

* * *

Bonnie was still at the dining table when Kai and Jeremy landed in the prison world. Still drowning her sorrows in a glass of bourbon, but now her sorrow was more apparent. She was unraveling, fast. He couldn't see her face, as she was turned away from them, but he could hear her uneven breaths, her hiccups. The wavering in her voice as she talked to herself. She was fighting her grief, fighting sobs. He wasn't that surprised, that she exercised so much restraint in crying over herself.

No, the only emotion coursing through him was something foreign and strong; it choked him. It made him feel so uncomfortable, that at one point, he averted his gaze to his feet, but then his head popped right back up. It was like he wanted to torture himself.

It didn't surprise him either, when in a fit of rage and with an incoherent yell, Bonnie stood, grasped the bottle of bourbon, and propelled it down on the ground, where it shattered loudly.

Grabbing the camcorder, she turned and, resolutely and unknowingly, made her way past him and into the foyer. Watching her leave, he wondered if she'd feel it - if he had reached out and touched her like he had so desperately wanted to in that moment.

"Stay here and try to find the map," Jeremy told him. He only nodded solemnly, compliantly. It was perfect, really, Jeremy going after her. He wouldn't be around for Kai's next steps, and Bonnie would undoubtedly prefer that anyway if she knew. Concentrating deeply again, clenching his eyes tight, Kai murmured the words to the Gemini's Summoning Spell.

He growled out in frustration when he opened his eyes only to find his hands empty, save for a small drop of scarlet, fresh, on the back his right hand. If his blood was dripping, warm, from his nose in the prison world, he hated to see what his real body was like in the present world.

Bonnie had sent the damn thing away so casually in the cave, with barely a blink of an eye to betray her. Gritting his teeth, a small, caustic laugh broke through. There was that begrudging admiration again.

Nevertheless, Kai wasn't deterred. He repeated the incantation twice more until his head was throbbing, and a brown teddy bear with beady eyes actually appeared in his hands. It felt like it was alive, like the newborn kittens had felt in his palm, when he was twelve, before he had drowned them in a water bucket.

He mentally cheered at his success, too exhausted to physically do so. He set the bear in its official place, right next to the flower on the end table, at the foot of the couch. The same place he had set it to greet Bonnie when she had woken from her arrow injury-induced unconsciousness, with some misguided wish that seeing it would make her soften towards him, but mostly his plans for escape - only if his cleaning and bandaging her wound hadn't been enough, not to mention hefting her body out of the cave and back to the house (okay, so he had stolen some magic from her for that particular task, but she hadn't been able to feel any pain), and _oh yeah_ , resisting the urge to murder her where she lay for facilitating Damon's departure.

Shaking his head, he chuckled resentfully at her tenacity. Because look where it had gotten them. He only hoped now it would keep her alive and get her home.

Kai trekked to the kitchen and searched the drawers of the island until he found Post-Its and a pen. Scribbling a better note than anything Damon could ever come up with, he strolled back to the living room, and he stuck the message to the bear's nose. Then he sat on the couch, tipped his head back, and closed his eyes. A ghost of a smile on his lips.

Idly, he noted that Luke had been suspiciously quiet for awhile now.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up with Damon's bleeding wrist in his mouth.

* * *

Coughing, Bonnie trudged through the door of the Salvatore Boarding House. She went straight to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, which soon turned to be several more glasses - like enough of it would wash away the corruption in her lungs.

Bonnie was taking the garage door opening as a sign. Maybe from her Grams. Perhaps she had pulled some strings from the beyond, from wherever the hell she had ended up after the Other Side collapsed. And she wondered, not for the first time, how her Grams could send her to _this_ place after it did.

 _Stay strong, baby girl_ _._ _S_ _tay strong._

Well, she was trying, but the battle was getting harder every day. She avoided it today, but she wondered when her next inevitable falter would happen. Maybe her Grams's birthday. Maybe her dad's. Elena's. Jeremy's. She didn't even know when Damon's was.

She also hadn't particularly relished the idea of dying, once again. Alone, once again. Only comforted by the thought that she wouldn't end up on the Other Side this time.

She made a new vow to herself, as she walked slowly back into the living room, to stop keeping track of the days all together. **He** _hadn't_ , she thought bitterly, remembering the exact number of days he had told her right before the worst Thanksgiving ever. 6, 771. If he could go that long, even if he had no choice, she could hold on a little longer. At least, until Elena and Damon returned again and hopefully didn't disappear. She was beginning to think she had imagined that interlude, created the illusion of her friends attempting to rescue her, out of sheer desperation and loneliness.

She shook herself, mentally, as she passed leisurely by the furniture, headed for the dining table, towards the cake she hadn't bothered to cut into earlier. But she stopped abruptly and did a double take. She blinked repeatedly as she surveyed the end table.

It _couldn't_ be...but it was. Ms. Cuddles, with a yellow Post-It perched on her nose.

She was almost afraid to reach for it, figured it would disappear as she did. But it didn't. It stayed real as she grabbed the note and brought it up close to her face.

 _Ms. Cuddles wouldn't want you to off yourself. Especially on your birthday._

 _-K_

 _P.S. Your friends are, like, really dumb. You should make some new ones. ; )_

Bonnie was seized with a sudden terror as soon she read the initial. Spinning around, she swept the room, almost as if she expected him to pop out from around the corner. She waited several beats, but all she heard was the deafening, eerie silence she was becoming accustomed to, only able to feel the pounding of her own heart. Gingerly, she picked up the teddy bear. She could feel it: her magic buzzing beneath the furry fabric like a hive of angry bees. Calling out to its rightful owner.

"Oh my god," she gasped out. This time, joyful tears stung her eyes. She clutched the bear to her chest and smiled softly. It became a confused frown as she contemplated the note.

Finally, she decided she didn't care how Ms. Cuddles was back, however it happened, whoever was implicated. In that moment, she only cared that it was.

Dashing to the hallway, she glanced at the grandfather clock by the stairs. It read: 11: 52. A burst of spontaneity hit her, and then, with her hand splayed flat on Ms. Cuddles's belly, she drained the teddy bear of every last drop of her magic it contained.

Next, rushing to the Ascendant on the dining table, Bonnie grabbed it in her other hand, and took off out the door. She ran into the woods, to the cavern, ignoring the searing stitch in her side. Staggered hurriedly through its entrance and interior path until she reached the spot where Damon had dug a hole above. Had four minutes to spare so she caught her breath.

Bonnie ignored the sting of the cut she had to inflict on herself, for her blood. And performed the words she had gotten to know so well, when the sky darkened. Her ascension from the Prison World felt exactly like her "descension" - she was swept up, but all she saw was a bright light , that she had caused her to close her eyes instinctively.

Then she was there, in the Mystic Falls cemetery, outside the Salvatore crypt. The best part of all, she could hear birds and far off traffic sounds on Bagby Road nearby. The air was cooler, the trees had no leaves, and the sun wasn't perpetually shining, blaring down on her.

In other words, she was home.

She booked it to the Boarding House, stumbling at some points. Stopping to catch her breath at others, before starting up again. The air was soothing her sweat, though. And the looks she imagined would be on everybody's faces feed her adrenaline.

She started sprinting when she reached the end of the driveway. In seconds, Bonnie was bursting through the heavy door. But she stopped short, taking in the sight, shocked to her core.

The first person she saw was Kai standing in front of the fireplace, with an hand to his jaw, and an irate Damon opposite him, several feet away. Elena was in between them, arms outstretched, holding him at bay. So caught up in their own drama, they didn't even notice her. And she couldn't seem to say anything, she was breathing too hard.

"Damon, stop!" the girl commanded.

"So I'm gonna ask again! Where's the freaking bear, Kai?" Damon seethed, his veins showing his eyes, straining against Elena. Truly angry.

Her exertion had to be catching up with her, she had to be imagining his ire, because why would he be angry about being missing? _She_ , Bonnie, was here. Wasn't that the whole point?

Her eyes were drawn, with an almost clinical curiosity to the small alterations of the House, the purple paper decorations that hung on either side of the fireplace.

Until her gaze drifted over and met Kai's, whose eyes were now fixed wholly on her, his mouth agape. He seemed shocked, rooted to the spot, speechless - a far cry from the cold eyes, smirks, and smooth words she had expected. He kept staring, now unaware of the vampire who had gained closer ground and was still bent on tearing out his carotid.

At least, he was until her vision dimmed, and all she saw was black.

"Bon," a voice called, laced with concern. Then the rest's exclamations came, but their's held astonishment.

It was _his_ voice, first, though.

 _That_ she was sure of before she fell to her knees.

 _A/N: So I've been playing around with a few little ideas for Bonkai fics, and then I realized I could connect them all together. I couldn't resist and then this came out. If you want to see_ _this_ _continued, let me know because I'd like to get those other ideas out._

 _The_ _italicized_ _words at the top come from City and Colour's "Little Hell." It's a very fitting song for Bonkai. One day, I might make a Bonkai vid to it to go with this fic._

 _Anyway, thanks for reading! Hoped you enjoyed._


	2. Chapter 2

_From my haunted past comes a daunting task of living through memories_

 _Please believe in this my dear, I am more than penitent_

* * *

She was instantly swarmed by concerned vampires.

Since she had closed her eyes instinctively when her vision had gone black, Bonnie only heard the "whoosh" in the air as they vamp-speed to her, only felt strong hands lift her head up. Then a delicate, bleeding wrist was shoved into her mouth. She didn't fight the gentle pressure, swallowing the sharp tangy liquid until she had several mouthfuls and her head was clear of the pounding haze.

She opened her eyes, and her vision blurred until it sharpened at all once and she focused on the person over Damon's shoulder.

Kai lingered on the fringe of the group, sporting a red mark on his jaw. He looked anxious - a completely foreign expression to her eyes - and it reminded her earlier mystification at the scene she'd just encountered. Damon, irate and yelling about Ms. Cuddles. Elena attempting to play referee between a vampire and a witch.

But what stuck out the most - Kai had called her Bon - the nickname sounding so damn... _natural_ leaving his lips. When it shouldn't have. So _familiar_ , like he was her friend. Intimate when he wasn't, when he shouldn't be. It bothered her, beyond anything else at the moment.

Maybe because she had gone so long without being called anything at all by anybody.

Abruptly, his face shifted, becoming unreadable, as he finally registered her examination. However, his gaze reminded steady, locked with her's. Even as his face was unreadable, his eyes … there was something there, something unsettling - in that it wasn't unsettling at all. But real, reminding her of the moment he had laid his soul bare, in his own way, at the table in his blood-soaked house over a Thanksgiving spaghetti dinner. For what reason, she had no clue now, considering how he had turned on her right after that. The thought of his betrayal brought forth the images she thought she had carefully dammed - all the moments he'd been close enough to her to do damage. In the cave, when he had shot her with a crossbow, and then stood with another arrow notched, his stance tense, his face lethal, threatening to shoot the next arrow in her heart. In the car, when he had been so close to her, she could feel his lips on her cheek, his breath through his nose, his grip firm on her neck, applying only enough pressure to remind her of a boa constrictor still in the process of luring in it's prey. When he had stabbed a white-hot knife in her gut, letting her fall to the ground, some glimmer of ecstasy to be found in the vicious curve of his mouth. His eyes, in all those moments, only contained a type of emptiness that was void-like and seemed more suited to him (and easier to detest) than the look in his eyes now.

She flung her hand out towards him. " _Motus_."

He flew back, letting out a surprised "oof" when his back met with the frame of the archway. He landed a crumpled heap on the floor, but he let out a caustic laugh. He was unsurprised by the turn of events.

She stood to her feet shakily, shrugging off the other's hands, her hand still extended defensively. She ignored their cautious warnings.

"Ow," he said, as he sat up and rubbed his back. He leaned back on his heels and stared up at her carefully. Then he frowned. "Wait, I'm confused. You weren't a fan of my birthday present?"

She said nothing. Only jutted her chin out as she stared him back down, daring him to make a move.

Kai's eyes dropped down to some place below her waist, and she stiffened.

"I'm sorry," Kai said, grinning widely, the smile too off-kilter, letting loose a short chuckle. "But I can't take you seriously when you have a teddy bear dangling from your hand."

She glanced down to see Ms. Cuddles still in her grasp, her hand gripping one scruffy paw for dear life.

Clinically, she wondered if he would take her next action seriously.

She raised her hand. " _Incen-_ "

"Whoa!" Kai exclaimed, raising his arms in placation, interrupting her incantation. Much to her chagrin, their captive audience had much the same reaction, Elena coming forward to stay her hand, Damon jumping between them.

She was not really surprised at their interference. She knew her friends were no strangers to making deals with villains, and based on the scene she had walked in on, she was starting to suspect something had been offered to Kai for her aiding in her return. Because he certainly wouldn't do out of the good of his non-existent heart.

"So what did you guys offer him?"

Damon and Elena turned to her, sheepish expressions already in place.

"Free reign to terrorize? "

She waited but her friends kept silent, the air thick with their guilt.

But Kai answered, "I only asked that they delivered an apology letter to my sister."

She cut her eyes back to him, sharp. And he almost seemed to shrink from her gaze, shifting nervously on his feet. "Your sister?"

This time, Elena came forward. "Bon, there's a lot that's happened that we would love to explain to you."

She crossed her arms. "Good, he,-" here, she jerked her chin towards Kai, "-can be gone for that."

Kai was quick to protest, and she rolled her eyes. "No, wait - I had something to say to you first."

" _I don't care_."

"Please, hear me out."

The statement pulled her up short, the pleading tone - was Kai begging?

And her mystification gave him the time he needed. Gazing at her, he began, "I wanted….," he paused, his apple's adam bobbing, and he looked to his feet briefly for a second before his eyes met hers again. "To apologize."

Her mouth dropped open. She took a moment to collect herself before she turned to the vampires on her left. "This is a joke, right?" But they both looked just as shocked as she felt. "A prank?"

"No, it's not. Just hear me out," Kai demanded insistently this time.

"No," she said bluntly, bristling. "In fact, you thinking you deserve even a minute of my time is proof enough to me that you're still crazy."

"Bon-"

" _Stop_ calling me that," she snapped through gritted teeth. "And leave, before I make you."

She raised her hand again, threatening. Kai only stared at her, his face blank.

"Bonnie-" he attempted again.

She struck, sending out an arc of magic straight towards him. This time, however, he blocked it.

 _Blocked it_. Deflected it wordlessly.

She felt the magic - _his_ magic, cloying and dark like night, shifting with her own (she really wondered how she hadn't noticed it before, his new invisible magical aura that was not stolen) - ripple the air.

Her mouth fell open again. "How did you get magic?"

"That's part of the explanation we were going to tell you," Damon cut in just as Kai said, "I Merged."

She saw it, because she had not taken her eyes off Kai's - the glimmer of pride in his eyes as he said the words.

He had mentioned his sister before. And a letter. "You found your sister? You-..." she trailed off as she realized what it meant for him to merge with her. Another sibling dead because of him.

"Speaking of, I called Ric while you were on your magical jaunt, I located Jo," Damon said. "They're back at her apartment now."

Bonnie became confused. "Wait, she's alive?"

Damon ignored her, his attention on Kai, his eyes glinting. "I will personally hand-deliver your note just as soon as you leave Mystic Falls for good and don't return, like for forever."

Kai seemed like he hadn't heard Damon's words, only focused on Bonnie. For longer than was polite. Goosebumps erupted over her flesh.

"You know what," Kai finally said, pulling the letter in question from his jacket pocket. "I think I'll deliver it to her myself." As Kai spoke, he walked past her, heading towards the door. She only stood stiffly, defensively, keeping her eyes on him. He paused at the foot of the door and whirled his finger around, indicating his soundings - the paper streamers, the ramshackled living room that saw a fight between a witch and a vampire. "If this whole experience has taught me anything, it's that I can't trust you bunch to do anything helpful, useful, or effective."

With one last look at Bonnie, he said, "They didn't want me to send you the teddy bear by the way. Thought they couldn't trust me with it. But I'm glad it brought you back. Also, they threw a birthday party you couldn't even attend. I mean how tacky is that?"

She didn't falter in her glowering at him, not matter how much her stomach dropped. Not matter how much the doubt in her head made her think twice.

He opened the door, and Bonnie almost started to relax, but of course he turned back.

"By the way, I'm not leaving Mystic Falls for awhile. Still got a lot of business to conduct." Here was the Kai she knew, a veiled threat and a dark, implacable countenance masking innocent, harmless features.

Bonnie could've sworn his gaze literally pierced her as he said the last part - something sharp jabbed at her ribs, making it hard to breathe.

He finally turned back and ducked out the door, with that signature smirk. She breathed in deeply as the door swung shut behind him and staggered a step backward. Elena came up to her side and grasped her hand, pulling her deeper into the room.

Bonnie gave her a grateful smile.

Just then, she heard it, and the girls paused.

"Bonnie?"

She turned again to see Jeremy standing under the archway, his face awestruck.

* * *

In hindsight, Kai realized his whole reunion with Bonnie could've gone better. But it also could've been worse, he mused, as he ascended the steps that led to Jo's apartment.

It was frustrating - to have all these new sensations and no outlet to assuage them. He wasn't equipped with the right tools and resources to handle it. He had no idea how to access them.

When he reached Jo's door, he brought his finger up to press the doorbell then hesitated.

Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders. He reached up towards the doorbell again and then paused.

Shaking his head, he bent down and slipped the letter under the door, in the crack. He knew it would reach his intended target...recipient. He just hoped she would be willing to read it.

Now, it was time to focus his attention elsewhere - earning some semblance of forgiveness from a certain, stubborn witch.

* * *

 _A/N: So I feel like this chapter is anticlimatic after I made you guys wait for like 2 years for it - so sorry about that! I can't promise regular updates : ( but know that this story is very special to me. And your guys' responses to it were amazing. Even reviews from Bonkai writers that I admire and respect so much? It was almost unfathomable. Even now I still get amazing reviews and I wanted to at least give you something._


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